Kurzweil has an illustrious career as an inventor, author, and futurist. He's perhaps best known for his ideas about the singularity, a time in the future when computer intelligence will surpass that of humans.

In a statement, he said that in 1999 he predicted self-driving cars and phones that answer questions about a decade later.

Given Google's extensive work with its self-driving cars and its voice activated assistant called Google Now, he turned out to be just about spot-on. Now Google's brought him on board.

It's a collaboration that's sure to have tech fans going crazy, with two such notable heavyweights teaming up.